Story-Telling as a Counselling Form

Running head: STORY TELLING AS A COUNSELLING FORM
Story-Telling as a Counselling Form
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STORY TELLING AS A COUNSELLING FORM
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Introduction
According to Douglas, Woolfe, Strawbridge, Kasket and Galbraith (2016), a story is an
account of events or happenings, it can be imaginary or real. It assumes that people have enough
experiences, beliefs, competencies, and values that can be used to help them reduce the problems
of life. Storytelling is a practice that has been practiced in most cultures since time immemorial.
It emerged in the 1980s with social constructionist movement and other theories to interpret it
(Lichtenberg, Goodyea, Hutman and Overland, 2016). Stories are what distinguishes one culture
from the other. Through stories we build cultures, our systems, believes, practices all have their
roots in stories that have passed from one generation to another. Through stories, we
communicate with one another concerning the meaning of events, occurrences, and experiences.
The world thrives in stories from our experiences and stories from others. The stories may be in
the form of written stories or spoken. We all have heard of the creation story; it is these stories
that shape our beliefs on human existence. It can, therefore, be said stories are central to our
beliefs and identity. Strong stories can change the way we think and perceive things. Human
beings are story makers and storytellers in nature. The ability to tell stories starts as soon as a
child learns a language. Thus, we can say stories relate to how cultural orientation of how we
should behave, what we should do and how.
Narrative therapy is the important life stories of a given people and the therapeutic value
they give to both the story makers and the storytellers. Narrative therapy started as a way
community work and counseling; it is now widely used in for almost all types of therapeutic
counseling. In narrative therapy problems are solved by allowing the client to speak or narrate
the events, their beliefs and life experiences and from these stories they are helped to re-author
their beliefs and values by replacing the negative ones with the positive. The theoretical view
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looks at the nature of language, and ways in which people create their world and a sense of being
through narrative therapy. According to the narrative approach, we can conclude the following.
That it is all about people and their beliefs, the approach assumes that people’s lives and
existence are all about stories. Each culture has its own beliefs, norms, and values and this is
what makes up our unique institutions, practices, and disciplines.
Due to the power in storytelling, counseling through storytelling is an ancient activity that
was used to offer therapy to people who had various disorders and troubles. Storytelling as a way
of counseling is emerging in the form of narratives that explain human behavior. The narratives
reflect the theories related to postmodernism. Counselors use narratives in counseling by acting
as the co-authors with their clients. They help them create better stories and identity about
themselves that the stories they have been made to believe that might be the result of here
problems.
Many theoretical approaches relating to narrative counseling have been developed and
used during counseling sessions. Among the theories is the use of motivational interviewing.
This method aims at changing the mind and thinking of the affected person whereby the therapist
is expected to show empathy and warmth (Thibaut, 2017). Counselors who use this method are
expected to portray some characteristics like reflective listening, open questions, affirmations,
and summary. Reflective listening helps one to show genuine concern and enables understanding
of the client’s message hence enables the counselor to be in a position to help the client in the
best way possible. By doing this the therapist is in a position to draw a difference between a
client’s behavior and the value they hold. In this theoretical approach, the counselor is expected
to allow the client to have his way especially he or she should allow the client to express
resistance as it is their way of voicing their doubt. The therapist should, however, support self-
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